The Monitor's View:
“A survey released last week by the Pew Hispanic Center found more than four in 10 Mexicans are willing to leave their country to live in the US. One in five would risk a dangerous, illegal border crossing. Most surprising, one in three college graduates wants to flee. Before Washington takes up immigration reform this fall, it needs to take a hard look at Mexico's disillusionment.” ---- Christian Science Monitor

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

May 30, 2010Blacks in Memphis Lose Decades of Economic GainsBy MICHAEL POWELLMEMPHIS — For two decades, Tyrone Banks was one of many African-Americans who saw his economic prospects brightening in this Mississippi River city. A single father, he worked for FedEx and also as a custodian, built a handsome brick home, had a retirement account and put his eldest daughter through college. Then the Great Recession rolled in like a fog bank. He refinanced his mortgage at a rate that adjusted sharply upward, and afterward he lost one of his jobs. Now Mr. Banks faces bankruptcy and foreclosure. “I’m going to tell you the deal, plain-spoken: I’m a black man from the projects and I clean toilets and mop up for a living,” said Mr. Banks, a trim man who looks at least a decade younger than his 50 years. “I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished. But my whole life is backfiring.” Not so long ago, Memphis, a city where a majority of the residents are black, was a symbol of a South where racial history no longer tightly constrained the choices of a rising black working and middle class. Now this city epitomizes something more grim: How rising unemployment and growing foreclosures in the recession have combined to destroy black wealth and income and erase two decades of slow progress. The median income of black homeowners in Memphis rose steadily until five or six years ago. Now it has receded to a level below that of 1990 — and roughly half that of white Memphis homeowners, according to an analysis conducted by Queens College Sociology Department for The New York Times. Black middle-class neighborhoods are hollowed out, with prices plummeting and homes standing vacant in places like Orange Mound, White Haven and Cordova. As job losses mount — black unemployment here, mirroring national trends, has risen to 16.9 percent from 9 percent two years ago; it stands at 5.3 percent for whites — many blacks speak of draining savings and retirement accounts in an effort to hold onto their homes. The overall local foreclosure rate is roughly twice the national average. The repercussions will be long-lasting, in Memphis and nationwide. The most acute economic divide in America remains the steadily widening gap between the wealth of black and white families, according to a recent study by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University. For every dollar of wealth owned by a white family, a black or Latino family owns just 16 cents, according to a recent Federal Reserve study. The Economic Policy Institute’s forthcoming “The State of Working America” analyzed the recession-driven drop in wealth. As of December 2009, median white wealth dipped 34 percent, to $94,600; median black wealth dropped 77 percent, to $2,100. So the chasm widens, and Memphis is left to deal with the consequences. “This cancer is metastasizing into an economic crisis for the city,” said Mayor A. C. Wharton Jr. in his riverfront office. “It’s done more to set us back than anything since the beginning of the civil rights movement.” The mayor and former bank loan officers point a finger of blame at large national banks — in particular, Wells Fargo. During the last decade, they say, these banks singled out blacks in Memphis to sell them risky high-cost mortgages and consumer loans. The City of Memphis and Shelby County sued Wells Fargo late last year, asserting that the bank’s foreclosure rate in predominantly black neighborhoods was nearly seven times that of the foreclosure rate in predominantly white neighborhoods. Other banks, including Citibank and Countrywide, foreclosed in more equal measure. In a recent regulatory filing, Wells Fargo hinted that its legal troubles could multiply. “Certain government entities are conducting investigations into the mortgage lending practices of various Wells Fargo affiliated entities, including whether borrowers were steered to more costly mortgage products,” the bank stated. Wells Fargo officials are not backing down in the face of the legal attacks. They say the bank made more prime loans and has foreclosed on fewer homes than most banks, and that the worst offenders — those banks that handed out bushels of no-money-down, negative-amortization loans — have gone out of business. “The mistake Memphis officials made is that they picked the lender who was doing the most lending as opposed to the lender who was doing the worst lending,” said Brad Blackwell, executive vice president for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Not every recessionary ill can be heaped upon banks. Some black homeowners contracted the buy-a-big-home fever that infected many Americans and took out ill-advised loans. And unemployment has pitched even homeowners who hold conventional mortgages into foreclosure. Federal and state officials say that high-cost mortgages leave hard-pressed homeowners especially vulnerable and that statistical patterns are inescapable. “The more segregated a community of color is, the more likely it is that homeowners will face foreclosure because the lenders who peddled the most toxic loans targeted those communities,” Thomas E. Perez, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, told a Congressional committee. The reversal of economic fortune in Memphis is particularly grievous for a black professional class that has taken root here, a group that includes Mr. Wharton, a lawyer who became mayor in 2009. Demographers forecast that Memphis will soon become the nation’s first majority black metropolitan region. That prospect, noted William Mitchell, a black real estate agent, once augured for a fine future. “Our home values were up, income up,” he said. He pauses, his frustration palpable. “What we see today, it’s a new world. And not a good one.” Porch View “You don’t want to walk up there! That’s the wild, wild west,” a neighbor shouts. “Nothing on that block but foreclosed homes and squatters.” To roam Soulsville, a neighborhood south of downtown Memphis, is to find a place where bungalows and brick homes stand vacant amid azaleas and dogwoods, where roofs are swaybacked and thieves punch holes through walls to strip the copper piping. The weekly newspaper is swollen with foreclosure notices. Here and there, homes are burned by arsonists. Yet just a few years back, Howard Smith felt like a rich man. A 56-year-old African-American engineer with a gray-flecked beard, butter-brown corduroys and red sneakers, he sits with two neighbors on a porch on Richmond Avenue and talks of his miniature real estate empire: He owned a home on this block, another in nearby White Haven and another farther out. His job paid well; a pleasant retirement beckoned. Then he was laid off. He has sent out 60 applications, obtained a dozen interviews and received no calls back. A bank foreclosed on his biggest house. He will be lucky to get $30,000 for his house here, which was assessed at $80,000 two years ago. “It all disappeared overnight,” he says. “Mmm-mm, yes sir, overnight,” says his neighbor, Gwen Ward. In her 50s, she, too, was laid off, from her supervisory job of 15 years, and she moved in with her elderly mother. “It seemed we were headed up and then” — she snaps her fingers — “it all went away.” Mr. Smith nods. “The banks and Wall Street have taken the middle class and shredded us,” he says. For the greater part of the last century, racial discrimination crippled black efforts to buy homes and accumulate wealth. During the post-World War II boom years, banks and real estate agents steered blacks to segregated neighborhoods, where home appreciation lagged far behind that of white neighborhoods. Blacks only recently began to close the home ownership gap with whites, and thus accumulate wealth — progress that now is being erased. In practical terms, this means black families have less money to pay for college tuition, invest in businesses or sustain them through hard times. “We’re wiping out whatever wealth blacks have accumulated — it assures racial economic inequality for the next generation,” said Thomas M. Shapiro, director of the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University. The African-American renaissance in Memphis was halting. Residential housing patterns remain deeply segregated. While big employers — FedEx and AutoZone — have headquarters here, wage growth is not robust. African-American employment is often serial rather than continuous, and many people lack retirement and health plans. But the recession presents a crisis of a different magnitude. Mayor Wharton walks across his office to a picture window and stares at a shimmering Mississippi River. He describes a recent drive through ailing neighborhoods. It is akin, he says, to being a doctor “looking for pulse rates in his patients and finding them near death.” He adds: “I remember riding my bike as a kid through thriving neighborhoods. Now it’s like someone bombed my city.” Banking on Nothing Camille Thomas, a 40-year-old African-American, loved working for Wells Fargo. “I felt like I could help people,” she recalled over coffee. As the subprime market heated up, she said, the bank pressure to move more loans — for autos, for furniture, for houses — edged into mania. “It was all about selling your units and getting your bonus,” she said. Ms. Thomas and three other Wells Fargo employees have given affidavits for the city’s lawsuit against the bank, and their statements about bank practices reinforce one another. “Your manager would say, ‘Let me see your cold-call list. I want you to concentrate on these ZIP codes,’ and you knew those were African-American neighborhoods,” she recalled. “We were told, ‘Oh, they aren’t so savvy.’ ” She described tricks of the trade, several of dubious legality. She said supervisors had told employees to white out incomes on loan applications and substitute higher numbers. Agents went “fishing” for customers, mailing live checks to leads. When a homeowner deposited the check, it became a high-interest loan, with a rate of 20 to 29 percent. Then bank agents tried to talk the customer into refinancing, using the house as collateral. Several state and city regulators have placed Wells Fargo Bank in their cross hairs, and their lawsuits include similar accusations. In Illinois, the state attorney general has accused the bank of marketing high-cost loans to blacks and Latinos while selling lower-cost loans to white borrowers. John P. Relman, the Washington, D.C., lawyer handling the Memphis case, has sued Wells Fargo on behalf of the City of Baltimore, asserting that the bank systematically exploited black borrowers. A federal judge in Baltimore dismissed that lawsuit, saying it had made overly broad claims about the damage done by Wells Fargo. City lawyers have refiled papers. “I don’t think it’s going too far to say that banks are at the core of the disaster here,” said Phyllis G. Betts, director of the Center for Community Building and Neighborhood Action at the University of Memphis, which has closely examined bank lending records. Former employees say Wells Fargo loan officers marketed the most expensive loans to black applicants, even when they should have qualified for prime loans. This practice is known as reverse redlining. Webb A. Brewer, a Memphis lawyer, recalls poring through piles of loan papers and coming across name after name of blacks with subprime mortgages. “This is money out of their pockets lining the purses of the banks,” he said. For a $150,000 mortgage, a difference of three percentage points — the typical spread between a conventional and subprime loan — tacks on $90,000 in interest payments over its 30-year life. Wells Fargo officials say they rejected the worst subprime products, and they portray their former employees as disgruntled rogues who subverted bank policies. “They acknowledged that they knowingly worked to defeat our fair lending policies and controls,” said Mr. Blackwell, the bank executive. Bank officials attribute the surge in black foreclosures in Memphis to the recession. They say that the average credit score in black Census tracts is 108 points lower than in white tracts. “People who have less are more vulnerable during downturns,” said Andrew L. Sandler of Buckley Sandler, a law firm representing Wells Fargo. Mr. Relman, the lawyer representing Memphis, is unconvinced. “If a bad economy and poor credit explains it, you’d expect to see other banks with the same ratio of foreclosures in the black community,” he said. “But you don’t. Wells is the outlier.” Whatever the responsibility, individual or corporate, the detritus is plain to see. Within a two-block radius of that porch in Soulsville, Wells Fargo holds mortgages on nearly a dozen foreclosures. That trail of pain extends right out to the suburbs. Begging to Stay To turn into Tyrone Banks’s subdivision in Hickory Ridge is to find his dream in seeming bloom. Stone lions guard his door, the bushes are trimmed and a freshly waxed sport utility vehicle sits in his driveway. For years, Mr. Banks was assiduous about paying down his debt: he stayed two months ahead on his mortgage, and he helped pay off his mother’s mortgage. Two years ago, his doorbell rang, and two men from Wells Fargo offered to consolidate his consumer loans into a low-cost mortgage. “I thought, ‘This is great! ’ ” Mr. Banks says. “When you have four kids, college expenses, you look for any savings.” What those men did not tell Mr. Banks, he says (and Ms. Thomas, who studied his case, confirms), is that his new mortgage had an adjustable rate. When it reset last year, his payment jumped to $1,700 from $1,200. Months later, he ruptured his Achilles tendon playing basketball, hindering his work as a janitor. And he lost his job at FedEx. Now foreclosure looms. He is by nature an optimistic man; his smile is rueful. “Man, I should I have stayed ‘old school’ with my finances,” he said. “I sat down my youngest son on the couch and I told him, ‘These are rough times.’ ” Many neighbors are in similar straits. Foreclosure notices flutter like flags on the doors of two nearby homes, and the lawns there are overgrown and mud fills the gutters. Wells Fargo says it has modified three mortgages for every foreclosure nationwide — although bank officials declined to provide the data for Memphis. A study by the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project and six nonprofit groups found that the nation’s four largest banks, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, had cut their prime mortgage refinancing 33 percent in predominantly minority communities, even as prime refinancing in white neighborhoods rose 32 percent from 2006 to 2008. For Mr. Banks, it is as if he found the door wide open on his way into debt but closed as he tries to get out. “Some days it feels like everyone I know in Memphis is in trouble,” Mr. Banks says. “We’re all just begging to stay in our h

States that border Mexico caused the meltdown (simply loans to ILLEGALS)________________________________________September 25, 2008

It’s also no accident that the vast majority of the mortgages already defaulted on or about to default come from states where illegal immigration is the most rampant. According to the New York Times: California, Arizona, Texas and Florida. It was time to scam America internally and externally.

(THE POPULATION OF HARRY REID’S STATE OF NEVADA IS NOW 25% ILLEGAL. REID HAS WORKED TIRELESSLY FOR MORE ILLEGALS AND OBTAINED $5 MILLION ADDITIONAL TAX PAYER DOLLARS FOR LA RAZA! LAS VEGAS HAS ONE OF THE HIGHEST RATES OF FORECLOSURES IN AMERICA!)

The mortgages, with an average size of about $450,000, were Alt-A loans — the kind often referred to as liar loans, because lenders made them without the usual documentation to verify borrowers’ incomes or savings. Some of the loans came only via an on-line application with no appearance of the person getting the loan was needed. Nearly 60 percent of the loans were made in California, Florida and Arizona, where home prices rose — and subsequently fell — faster than almost anywhere else in the country.

But there’s so much more, according to blogger and journalist Michelle Malkin:

Regional reports across the country have decried the subprime meltdown’s impact on illegal immigrant “victims.” A July report showed that in seven of the 10 metro areas with the highest foreclosure rates, Hispanics represented at least one-third of the population; in two of those areas – Merced and Salinas-Monterey, Calif. – Hispanics comprised half the population. The amnesty-promoting National Council of La Raza and its Development Fund have received millions in federal funds to “counsel” their constituents on obtaining mortgages with little to no money down; the group almost succeeded in attaching a $10 million earmark for itself in one of the housing bills past this spring. ( Proving corruption in high levels of our government) our SENATORS are opperating in a Clandestine manner.

(A clandestine operation is an intelligence or military operation carried out in such a way that the operation goes unnoticed).

Come on people it is 1776 all over again. Some of the owners of the Federal Reserve live in England and Germany. The largest shareholder in the illegal stock of the Federal Reserve lives in England, by the way, this is why England's money is worth the most on earth. Gold prices are set in London each morning. The Euro is the second strongest currency followed by the USA.....we are mere puppets for paying the piper to make these people rich beyond imagination.

So, once again, U. S. citizens will pay for the lawlessness of our leaders and their friends on Wall Street. It is a very bad time for our country!

A review of the damage wreaked on California communities by the housing bust shows that Latino households suffered nearly 50 percent of the foreclosures and that loan defaults are concentrated in the state's Central Valley. That area, which includes the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, features six of the top 10 California metro areas for foreclosure concentrations, according to the Center for Responsible Lending, which released a comprehensive report Tuesday. No California communities have experienced a higher percentage of defaults than Modesto, Merced and Stockton - each of which had a foreclosure percentage of around 16 percent between late 2006 and 2009, the study found. "The signature finding of this report, that there is a disproportionate rate of foreclosures for Latinos, is really stunning," said Paul Leonard, director of the California office for the Center for Responsible Lending. "The data shows that high-cost loans correlate with foreclosures and that there was a big presence of subprime lending to the (Latino) demographic and in areas where there are concentrations of Latinos." The center, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to fair lending practices, reported that minorities and remote suburbs - where incomes did not keep pace with escalating housing prices and unemployment has been high - were disproportionately represented in loan defaults. ContradictionsWhile identifying the state's hardest-hit regions and residents, the report, based on 877,173 properties foreclosed on from October 2006 through October 2009, also debunks some conventional beliefs about the foreclosure crisis. According to the study, most defaulting borrowers were not stretching beyond their means to buy a big dream home. Instead, the report data show that the typical foreclosed property in California is relatively modest and valued below the median price for its region. It also indicates that just over half of foreclosures relate to refinanced loans. The center hopes that the report will encourage lenders to aggressively pursue loan modifications and principal reductions and to invest in regions most harmed by the foreclosure crisis. It comes on the heels of the recent enactment of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, which includes some protections against predatory and discriminatory lending policies, including stricter underwriting rules and the creation of a bureau intended to rein in irresponsible lending practices. The California Mortgage Bankers Association responded critically to the report. A representative said it ignores unemployment - one of the major causes of foreclosures - and argued that most of its recommendations were already under way. "Merced, Modesto and Stockton, all in the Central Valley, were Nos. 4, 6 and 7 for unemployment in the United States in 2009, and that is not emphasized in this report," said Dustin Hobbs, communications director for the California Mortgage Bankers Association.Hobbs also said that home values have depreciated significantly in the Central Valley, which is an important factor for lenders when deciding whether to extend loan modifications.In recent months, the federal and state governments have initiated programs to try to help defaulting residents stay in their homes, including incentives for principal loan reductions and extended loan payment plans. Push for requirementsWhile other efforts will begin in the coming months, so far, the principal reduction initiatives have encouraged, instead of required, lenders to work with homeowners. State legislation, SB1275, which could come up for final approval any day now, requires lenders to contact a borrower prior to filing a default notice, provide them with a loan modification application and process the application before starting the foreclosure process. Unlike the federal initiatives, it gives the borrower the right to sue if the policies are not followed. Tuesday's report also says that Latinos, who represent 36.6 percent of California's population, received 29.9 percent of all mortgage loans originated between 2004 and 2008, but were subject to 48.7 percent of foreclosures. Latinos' share of higher-rate loans in California was 47.1 percent between 2004 and 2008, which correlates with general discriminatory lending practices at the time, the report said. According to the study, it is well-documented that Latino and African American families disproportionately received the most expensive and risky types of loans during the subprime lending boom. In 2006, for instance, federal figures show that among consumers who received conventional mortgages for single-family homes, roughly half of African Americans and Hispanic borrowers received a higher-rate mortgage compared with about 18 percent of white borrowers. *In Rep. Dan Tancredo’s district there have been more than 10,000 mortgages owned by illegals that went into foreclosure. It’s only part of the border to border crime wave perpetrated by illegals from Mexico.Time to fight AMNESTY and OPEN BORDERS?*E-Verify for Mortgage Applications (fraudulent claims from illegal immigrant)

Rep. Kenny Marchant Rep. Kenny Marchant (R-Texas) has offered the Mortgage E-Verify Act that would require a mortgagor to be verified through E-Verify when applying for a modification of a home loan owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

"As a member of the House Financial Services Committee, I am happy to introduce my bill, the Mortgage E-Verify Act, which would require, as a condition for modification of a home mortgage loan held by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac or insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), that the mortgagor be verified under the E-Verify program," Rep. Marchant said in a press release. "My bill will potentially save millions by cutting down on fraudulent claims from illegal immigrants and protect taxpayers from subsidizing the restructuring or renegotiation mortgages of illegal immigrants."

Rep. Marchant's bill is a result of a major case in Nevada where a loan officer submitted false income and employment documentation to help illegal aliens secure FHA loans. The scam totaled $6.2 million in loans with many going into default, costing HUD nearly $2 million. The loan officer was found guilty on 32 counts of submitting false information.

"E-Verify is a fantastic program which I have supported making permanent for employers," Rep. Marchant said. "Mandating its use as a condition for home mortgage loan modifications would help eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in the system and bring integrity to the process. In fact, the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement division (FinCEN) estimates that mortgage fraud increased 1,411 percent from 1997 to 2005. Furthermore, two-thirds of fraud reports in the last decade are due to falsified statements on loan documents. My bill would curb these abuses and protect the taxpayers." *Lou Dobbs Tonight Monday, November 12, 2007

Mortgage giants Wells Fargo and Countrywide Financial are accused of slapping dubious fees on homeowners struggling to save their homes. With fewer new mortgages being written, these companies appear to be leaning on these lucrative fees to stay profitable—with devastating consequences for homeowners. We’ll have that report.

And by letting those parts of SB1070 go into effect, Judge Bolton has sent a crystal clear message to the Obama Administration: States aren’t obligated to play along with the Obama immigration ploy of “we won’t enforce the law; and neither can you.”

With this ruling, Judge Bolton concedes that local governments have an important role to play in immigration enforcement.

This is a critical victory for concerned Americans like you and me.

And the time to build on that victory is right now. Tens of millions of Americans alarmed and angered about border security simply don’t know that the Obama Administration’s main attack against SB1070 just suffered a serious setback. FAIR can help educate and mobilize those everyday Americans if we just have the urgently needed resources.

Of course, we’re disappointed that Judge Bolton temporarily blocked other vital parts of SB1070 from being enforced by Arizona police officers and sheriff’s deputies.

But while the opinion of one unelected federal judge can, unfortunately, delay the carrying out of protections urgently needed by Arizonans -- she won’t have the final word.

And I’m confident the fight will be vigorous at the court of appeals -- and confident those parts of SB1070 will ultimately be upheld.

That’s one reason why FAIR Field Representatives and grassroots volunteers aren’t discouraged. In fact, they’re fired up to push hard for Arizona-type reform in cities and states across America.

Not only will this ruling help Arizonan activists and lawmakers move forward and focus their efforts on the remaining core issues.

But it’s encouraging lawmakers and citizen activists in over 20 other states to push for Arizona-type reforms with powerful momentum.

We know now we can defeat the Obama Administration’s main argument against state enforcement of immigration law.

But that’s not all:

Nationwide polls show massive grassroots support for cracking down on illegal immigration to protect American lives and jobs.

E-Verify laws that stop illegal aliens from taking jobs from law-abiding Americans are growing in popularity.

And state and federal lawmakers are feeling more heat from voters to end “birth tourism” and other abuses of the 14th Amendment used to grant citizenship to illegal aliens. You and I must strike while the iron is hot!

My staff here at FAIR and at our legal affiliate, the Immigration Reform Law Institute, are working hard right now to make even greater gains for effective, common sense immigration reform in each crucial battle mentioned above.

Please help us do that by making your vital contribution right away of $50, $100, $250, $500 or whatever can you afford.

Your past support has enabled FAIR media staff to defend the people of Arizona and SB1070 with non-stop media interviews on TV, radio, print and the Internet that have reached hundreds of thousands – sometimes millions – of citizens. Your gifts have helped fuel our research staff’s cutting edge studies that provide facts and figures to taxpayers and lawmakers – and empower our governmental relations staff to know what legislation is headed from Washington, DC to your front door.

That’s why your special contribution of $50 or more made now is critically important.

Without it, our action teams in the field, media, research and government watchdog efforts won’t have the resources we need to fight for your right to real immigration reform. We must move forward with the fights at hand…

…we must prepare for another possible push for amnesty from Congress just a short time from now…

…and guard against a possible attempt by the Obama Administration to make an end-run around Congress with “amnesty by regulation.”

ShareYahoo! Buzz Add to Mixx Facebook TwitterMore Fark Digg Reddit MySpace StumbleUpon Propeller LinkedInSubscribe myYahoo iGoogleMore Netvibes myAOLMONTERREY, Mexico (AP) — The kidnapped mayor of a northern Mexican town was found dead Wednesday, extending a rash of deadly attacks on political figures in an area besieged by drug gang battles.Santiago Mayor Edelmiro Cavazos' body was found near a waterfall outside his town, a popular weekend getaway for residents of the industrial city of Monterrey, said Nuevo Leon state attorney general Alejandro Garza y Garza.

Police have not determined a motive, but the assassination bore the hallmarks of drug cartels waging vicious turf battles in northeastern Mexico: Cavazos' hands were bound and his head was wrapped in tape.

MEXICO: Hunting party of 8 killed; mayor kidnapped

Garza y Garza suggested it was a drug gang hit, saying Cavazos participated in state security meetings and was "showing his face in the fight against organized crime."

However, Cavazos had not made any dramatic security decisions since taking office in November 2009, said Jorge Santiago Flores, the local president of the mayor's National Action Party. He said it remains a mystery why anyone would want to kill Cavazos.

"He was a very kind person. He was a man who worked a lot in the community and always helped those in need, donating medicine and helping people who asked," Flores said.

Cavazos, 38, was kidnapped from his home Sunday night by 15 armed men wearing uniforms from a defunct federal police force, a tactic frequently used by Mexico's drug gangs.

Garza y Garza said the gunmen arrived in seven vehicles with police patrol lights. When Cavazos and his security guard went to see what was going on, the assailants forced them into the cars.

The security guard was driven around for about 15 minutes and released unharmed by the side of a road, Garza y Garza said. The guard then reported the kidnapping to police.

President Felipe Calderon, who belongs to the National Action Party sent his interior secretary, Francisco Blake Mora, to Nuevo Leon for a security meeting with the state government.

Nuevo Leon Gov. Rodrigo Medina said he would press for more federal soldiers and police in the state.

The region been besieged by drug gang fighting, including a new war between the Gulf cartel and its former ally, the Zetas gang of hit men.

Mexico's drug gang violence has surged since Calderon intensified the fight against traffickers in late 2006, deploying thousands of troops and federal police to root out cartels from their strongholds.

More than 28,000 people have since been killed in the country's drug war. The government says most are victims of cartel infighting. But assassinations of police, government officials and politicians have also increased.

In June, gunmen ambushed and killed the leading gubernatorial candidate for Tamaulipas state, which neighbors Nuevo Leon, a week before the elections. A mayoral candidate in Tamaulipas was killed in May.

A total of 191 soldiers have been killed fighting drug gangs between December 2006 and Aug. 1, 2010, according to a list of names on a wall of a Defense Department anti-narctotics museum. Reporters saw the list Wednesday during a tour of the museum — the first time the government has made the number public.

Forty-three of the soldiers killed were officers.

Last week, the government said 2,076 police have been killed since December 2006.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Wednesday said he was sending more than 200 national guard troops to the California-Mexico border.

After a tour of the border Wednesday, Schwarzenegger said he plans to have 224 troops in place by Sept. 1.

"These men and women will provide much-needed assistance to help secure our border, but it's important to remember that this is only the beginning," Schwarzenegger said in a statement Wednesday. "We must find a permanent solution to our broken immigration system. We need the federal government to step up with even more manpower and funding, and I will continue to push President Obama and Congress for action." *JUDICIAL WATCHSANCTUARY COUNTY LOS ANGELES SPENDS $600 MILLION ON WELFARE FOR ILLEGALSCounty Spends $600 Mil On Welfare For Illegal ImmigrantsLast Updated: Thu, 03/11/2010 - 3:14pm For the second consecutive year taxpayers in a single U.S. county will dish out more than half a billion dollars just to cover the welfare and food-stamp costs of illegal immigrants. Los Angeles County, the nation’s most populous, may be in the midst of a dire financial crisis but somehow there are plenty of funds for illegal aliens. In January alone, anchor babies born to the county’s illegal immigrants collected more than $50 million in welfare benefits. At that rate the cash-strapped county will pay around $600 million this year to provide illegal aliens’ offspring with food stamps and other welfare perks.

THE EXORBITANT FIGURE DOES NOT INCLUDE THE ENORMOUS COST OF EDUCATING, MEDICALLY TREATING, OR INCARCERATING ILLEGALS ALIENS. THIS COSTS THE COUNTY AN ADDITIONAL ONE BILLION DOLLARS.

The exorbitant figure, revealed this week by a county supervisor, doesn’t even include the enormous cost of educating, medically treating or incarcerating illegal aliens in the sprawling county of about 10 million residents. Los Angeles County annually spends more than $1 billion for those combined services, including $500 million for healthcare and $350 million for public safety. About a quarter of the county’s welfare and food stamp issuances go to parents who reside in the United States illegally and collect benefits for their anchor babies, according to the figures from the county’s Department of Social Services. In 2009 the tab ran $570 million and this year’s figure is expected to increase by several million dollars. Illegal immigration continues to have a “catastrophic impact on Los Angeles County taxpayers,” the veteran county supervisor (Michael Antonovich) who revealed the information has said. The former fifth-grade history teacher has repeatedly come under fire from his liberal counterparts for publicizing statistics that confirm the devastation illegal immigration has had on the region. Antonovich, who has served on the board for nearly three decades, represents a portion of the county that is roughly twice the size of Rhode Island and has about 2 million residents.His district is simply a snippet of a larger crisis. Nationwide, Americans pay around $22 billion annually to provide illegal immigrants with welfare benefits that include food assistance programs such as free school lunches in public schools, food stamps and a nutritional program (known as WIC) for low-income women and their children. Tens of billions more are spent on other social services, medical care, public education and legal costs such as incarceration and public defenders. *Anchor Babies Grab One Quarter of Welfare Dollars in LA Co

The anchor baby scam has proven lucrative for illegal aliens in Los Angeles County, at considerable cost to our own poor and downtrodden legal citizenry.

The numbers show that more than $50 million in CalWORKS benefits and food stamps for January went to children born in the United States whose parents are in the country without documentation. This represents approximately 23 percent of the total benefits under the state welfare and food stamp programs, Antonovich said.

"When you add this to $350 million for public safety and nearly $500 million for health care, the total cost for illegal immigrants to county taxpayers far exceeds $1 billion a year -- not including the millions of dollars for education," Antonovich said.

I love children and I'm all for compassion -- smart, teach-them-to-fish compassion. But when laws, the Constitution, and enforcement allow illegal aliens (the operative word here being "illegal") to insinuate themselves into our nation and bleed us of our precious financial resources, then laws, the Constitution and enforcement need to be changed.

*WHO REALLY PAYS FOR THE MEX WELFARE STATE? NOT THE EMPLOYERS OF ILLEGALS! NOT MEXICO! WE ARE MEXICO’S WELFARE SYSTEM.

America's third largest national organization, focused on fighting against Amnesty and illegal immigration, is announcing that 22 states now have lawmakers pushing versions of Arizona's illegal immigration crackdown bill SB 1070 following announcements by GOP lawmakers in Colorado and Alabama.

Americans for Legal Immigration PAC's activists supported the passage of the new Arizona law and have helped pass other immigration enforcement measures in many states.

Colorado and Alabama are moving forward despite setbacks to the law delivered by lone liberal judge Bolton who sided with illegal aliens and President Obama against the American public and the AZ Legislature.

ALIPAC's strategy to help defend Arizona from intensive attacks from the nation of Mexico and the Obama administration has been to spread the law to other states to illustrate the popularity and wisdom of the legislation.

"Our ALIPAC activists have been working hard contacting state lawmakers in every state in America asking them to stand up with Arizona," said William Gheen, President of ALIPAC. "We are very pleased to announce that 22 states are now following Arizona's lead to pass versions of a law that has the support of 60-81% percent of Americans according to the polls."

ALIPAC has been tracking the spread of the new Arizona law in other states on the website at www.ALIPAC.uswhich is the largest archive of information about illegal immigration in existence.

"State and Federal candidates are rushing to display their support for Arizona's law and immigration enforcement," said William Gheen. "We will not stop until all American states are protected from this invasion as mandated by the Constitution of the United States."

OBAMA, AS HE ASSAULT THE AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS, HIS BANKSTERS, THE CORPORATE RICH, LA RAZA, AND ILLEGALS ARE ALL DOING FINE!

THE REST OF AMERICAN IS FORECLOSED ON, AND GETTING THE TAX BILLS TO PAY FOR ALL OF OBAMA’S WELFARE FOR BANKSTERS AND ILLEGALS!

FROM HERITAGE FOUNDATIONMorning Bell: End Crony CapitalismPosted By Conn Carroll On August 18, 2010 @ 9:33 am In Enterprise and Free Markets | 21 CommentsAt 300 East 23rd Street in the exclusive Gramercy Park neighborhood [1] of Manhattan, where to get into parts of the park you need a key granted just to residents, a new 98-unit luxury apartment complex has been built with an outdoor movie theater and panoramic city views [2]. The problem is that not enough buyers are coughing up the $820,000 to $3 million the project’s developers are asking for the privilege to own a unit in the building. But don’t worry, the Obama administration is coming to the rescue. Last December, the Federal Housing Administration loosened its financing rules [3] so that U.S. taxpayers would have the honor of backing loans with downpayments as low as 3.5%. Now rich Manhattanites can better afford condos in buildings with pet spas, concierges and rooftop lounges like the one in Gramercy Park, all on the taxpayers’ dime.You read that correctly: the FHA, created in 1934 to make homeownership attainable for low- to moderate-income Americans, is now subsidizing Manhattan luxury condominiums. How did we get here? The mindset that allowed this unconscionable public policy to occur was on display yesterday in Washington, where Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner hosted his Future of Housing Finance symposium. While Secretary Geithner promised [4] “fundamental reform” of our nation’s housing policies, he also insisted that the federal government must continue to play a strong role in U.S. mortgage markets: “There is a strong case to be made for a carefully designed guarantee in a reformed system, with the objective of providing a measure of stability in access to mortgages, even in future economic downturns.”Geithner was not asked if FHA’s backing of Manhattan luxury condos fit his definition of a “carefully designed guarantee in a reformed system,” but American Enterprise Institute fellow Alex Pollock was there to at least throw some cold water [4] on Geithner’s central-planner arrogance: “You can either, in my view, be a private company or a government agency — one or the other, but not both.”Geithner’s “carefully designed” government intervention mindset is at the core of why the Obama administration’s economic policies have been a complete failure. Since taking office the Obama administration has used the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and other initiatives to buy one car company [5], give another to union allies [6], punish non-union workers [7], undermine the bankruptcy code [6], enrich Wall Street at the expense of Main Street [8], bail out Mickey Mouse [9], keep unionized zombie firms from dying [10] and generally terrorize the world economy [11]. That is why, for the first time ever in 2010, the United States fell from the ranks of the economically “free,” as measured by The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom [12]. From housing, to banking, to spending and taxation, the U.S. economy will only truly recover once it is clear to private enterprises that their best bet is investing in employees, machines and ideas, not lawyers and lobbyists in Washington. To that end, Heritage’s just-released Solutions for America [13] chapter on Restoring the U.S. to a Free Economy [14] recommends:Unwind Government Intervention: The government should end the interventions it has made since 2008, starting with abolition of the TARP program. It should then abolish Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and repeal all U.S. government regulatory measures that interfere with mortgage markets. Congress should also repeal the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, which discriminates against small firms and reduces competition. Companies should be allowed to fail, and laws and regulations should create no expectation of a future bailout.Reduce Government Involvement in Commercial Decision-making: Congress must eliminate the insidious practice of earmarking, which corrupts the legislative process. The government needs to divest itself of all assets acquired in connection with the financial crisis and recession and refrain from interfering in bankruptcy cases.Reduce Tax Rates: Our corporate income tax rate, currently the second highest in the developed world, must be cut to restore U.S. competitiveness. The corporate tax rate should be set at or below the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development average of 26% to eliminate the incentive for businesses and jobs to move overseas. We should also stop taxing businesses as individuals, but rather reduce rates to 25%, which would help business to grow and create jobs.Spend Less and Devolve Responsibilities: Congress should enact a firm cap on the annual increase in total government spending, limited to inflation plus population growth. Lawmakers should exert all effort to keep overall federal spending to less than 20% of U.S. GDP, the historical post–World War II average for federal spending.Give Workers a RAISE: Union contracts set both a wage floor and a wage ceiling. Unionized employers may not give productive workers pay raises outside those envisioned in the collectively bargained contract. The RAISE Act (Rewarding Achievement and Incentivizing Successful Employees) would allow employers to pay individual workers more, but not less, than the union contract specifies thus restoring to millions of union members the inherent American right to earn individual raises through individual efforts.On Monday, President Barack Obama visited the ZBB Energy battery factory in Menomonee Falls, Wis. Last January, the Obama Energy Department invested $14 million in the company, and President Obama was on hand to claim credit for every employed person there. But The Wall Street Journal [15] did some homework and found that since going public in June of 2007, ZBB has been hemorrhaging money. The firm lost $4.9 million in fiscal year 2008, $5.5 million in fiscal year 2009, and has a “cumulative deficit” of $44.1 million. ZBB has admitted that its ability to continue as a “going concern” depends on securing additional investment. In a free market economy, private investors would provide those funds, reap the rewards if ZBB prospered and suffer the losses if ZBB failed. But under President Obama’s crony capitalist economy, ZBB is the big winner if the company survives, and if they fail, it is you, the taxpayer, who loses.

John McCain's Deception & Betrayal Must Be Stopped to Save America on August 24, 2010

August 4, 2010

By William Gheen President of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) www.alipac.us

US Senator John McCain is the top GOP advocate for Obama's Comprehensive Immigration Reform Amnesty legislation that would turn over 12 million illegal aliens into US citizens and voters thus destroying any future peaceful political hopes for border or immigration enforcement.

Luckily for Arizonans and all Americans, McCain's future plans can be stopped, if enough people will vote for JD Hayworth in the August 24 GOP Primary in Arizona.

Some people may not want to believe this about John McCain because he has proven to be a skillful liar, a master at deceit, and one of the dirtiest campaigners I've ever witnessed in my career in politics. McCain is everything that voters claim they dislike and he has spent millions of dollars trying to smear JD Hayworth, while marketing himself falsely as an opponent to Obama on immigration issues and a champion of border security.

During the 2008 GOP Presidential primaries, we thought that John McCain could not win because of his advocacy for Amnesty for illegal aliens in 2006 and 2007. Surely, no member of the Republican party could win a primary after being in every newspaper and on every TV in America with their arms around liberal Senators Ted Kennedy and Harry Reid pushing for an Amnesty that is opposed by 2 out of 3 Americans and well over 80% of Republican voters!

Boy were we wrong. We underestimated McCain's abilities to deceive backed by amnesty supporting media outlets and million dollar PR campaigns using TV, Radio, direct mail, and phone banks. We overestimated the memories of GOP voters and what information those voters were making their decision on. We also underestimated the political theater games that went on with other GOP candidates playing the "I'm the toughest on illegal immigration" game to split GOP voters several ways.

John McCain was immediately rebuked by GOP voters at one of his first town hall style campaign meetings when he launched his Presidential run. His campaign quickly realized, like we did, that McCain was unelectable because of his unpopular Amnesty positions. They also realized that his repeated mantra and lie of "I oppose Amnesty" was not fooling enough voters! So John McCain invents the "Secure the Borders First" slogan.

Secure the Borders first equates to a spoon full of sugar helping the lethal poison go down! Every state in America could adopt Arizona's SB 1070 and you could place 30,000 combat troops on our borders and it would all be to no avail once McCain and Obama's millions of illegal aliens displaced millions of Americans at the ballot box!

When McCain won the GOP Primary in 2008 a great scream of anguish went up from those who knew the man well.

Within a few short weeks John McCain had abandoned his "Secure The Border" language and went on the Spanish language networks promising Hispanic voters Comprehensive Immigration Reform Amnesty. His campaign hired and deployed the despicable invasion leader Juan Hernandez who in turn went out to promise the illegals and their supporters that McCain would deliver Amnesty.

As reported on CNN's Lou Dobbs Show on September 15, 2008. John McCain not only supports Amnesty, but he both praised Obama for his support of Amnesty in 2006 and then criticized Obama for not supporting Amnesty enough in 2008!

VIDEO: CNN DOCUMENTATION OF MCCAIN's SUPPORT FOR AMNESTY FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS

When the dust settled, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) conducted a poll that unearthed some amazing findings. The poll found that most voters were not accurately aware of candidate positions on the issue of illegal immigration and that McCain supporters were the furthest off the mark. VIEW MORE DETAILS OF CIS POLL ABOUT MCCAIN

The CIS poll using neutral language found that only 34% of McCain voters knew McCain as "favoring eventual citizenship for illegal immigrants who meet certain requirements." By comparison, 42% of Hillary Clinton's voters knew she favored that and 52% of Obama voters knew his position.

While ALIPAC opposes any form of Amnesty, I've often said that I have more respect for liberal Democrats who are honest about their support for Amnesty, as opposed to some of the high profile Republicans like McCain who lie about their true positions!

The CIS poll not only discovered that McCain supporters were more misinformed than Obama supporters, but that many were drastically misled about McCain's positions. Of John McCain supporters, 35 percent mistakenly thought he favored enforcement that would cause illegals to return home, another 10 percent thought he wanted mass deportations, and 21 percent didn’t know his position on immigration at all.

The most important finding of the CIS poll was that only 31% of those who voted for McCain in the GOP Primary for President shared his true views about making illegal aliens into citizens and voters! Obama voters were again more true to the mark as 61% of Obama's voters shared his positions.

The McCain deception is working again in 2010, unless we all pull together and take steps to stop him!

Of course John McCain's latest flip flop from Amnesty supporter to "Border Defender" is designed to make Arizonans believe that he is listening to them and responding to their desires.

I know better because I stood outside of John McCain's US Senate office back in 2007 for over an hour. I patiently eavesdropped on his office staff and counted with a notepad as calls came in from across AZ and America against the McCain Kennedy Amnesty bill fifty to one! That's right, just like the other Senate offices reported, McCain received calls, emails, and faxes from you great citizens who took the time to speak out against the McCain Kennedy Amnesty bill (SB 2611). It was fifty against his bill to everyone one that was for it and he, John McCain refused to listen to, or represent you!

If you reelect John McCain, it will not be long until you are calling and begging McCain to oppose Amnesty again and your voice will not be heard or acknowledged by John McCain. Please trust those of us who were there fighting toe to toe for you and fighting for America in the last Amnesty battles. By the next time McCain is up for reelection, your votes will not matter much as the illegals will take control of the elections as new voters. McCain did not listen to America before and we have no reason, other than his empty promises and lies, to believe that he has changed his stance on Amnesty.

Fool us once, shame on you McCain. Fool us twice and shame on Americans who let you get away with it.

John McCain has become the poster child of how Republicans promising Amnesty to illegal aliens is a losing strategy. He promised the illegal alien supporters the moon and they still voted Obama. McCain blew the race to Obama on many occasions and while he attacks a true conservative like JD Hayworth with millions in attack ads and a slash and burn ruthlessness, McCain refused to go after Obama at all even after Obama told the nation "Learn English? You need to make sure your children learn Spanish!"

Yes, Obama said that as you can see in the video here on Youtube, and if John McCain had simply spoken out for the vast majority of Americans who feel immigrants should learn English, he would be President today. But McCain did not do that because both McCain and Obama are servants to the same political factions that wants Amnesty and Open Borders in America regardless of how many Americans lose their jobs, homes, health, security, and lives in the process.

A defeat for John McCain in the August 24, 2010 primary in Arizona would throw a monkey wrench into the entire Amnesty agenda in Washington. Our DC sources tell us that President Obama is short one vote for Amnesty and he is waiting on John McCain to finish duping the GOP voters in Arizona before proceeding to move forward.

The reason Amnesty has not already been pushed down the throats of the 70-80% of Americans who oppose it is because JD Hayworth is running against John McCain.

ACCESS ALIPAC's COLLECTION OF POLLS ABOUT VOTER VIEWS ON IMMIGRATION

While JD may not be a flawless angel of perfection, he is a base conservative who is much more aligned with Conservative America than John McCain on most test issues especially immigration. He has enthusiastically agreed to be a champion for Americans that oppose Amnesty for illegal aliens.

JD Hayworth has made it clear he is running to stop McCain's Amnesty plans and to give Arizona voters a clear choice on the matter. Hayworth wrote a book about the perils of amnesty and illegal immigration called "Whatever It Takes" and we were very proud that he sourced our organization, Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, in his book. Hayworth's campaign ads draw a clear distinction that JD Hayworth is against McCain's Amnesty plans. (VIDEO)

JD Hayworth has been endorsed by ALIPAC and the true blue illegal immigration fighters in Arizona such as Sheriff Joe Arpaio who now has a million dollar bounty on his life due to his opposition to illegal immigration. State Senator Russell Pearce, the architect of Arizona's controversial SB 1070 bill has also endorsed JD Hayworth.

SEE ALIPAC's CURRENT LIST OF ENDORSED CANDIDATES ACROSS AMERICA

JD Hayworth dedicated much of his talk radio show to opposing illegal immigration and opposing any form of Amnesty for illegal aliens. He is the clear choice for anyone who has looked into the issue of illegal immigration and what must be done to stop it.

John McCain has been the best friend illegal aliens and corrupt businesses have in the Republican Party.

Now we have news that one of the things John McCain has feared the most is happening. Although some of the national Tea Party groups have not weighed in, JD Hayworth is now the clear "Tea Party Candidate".

ALIPAC helped pave the way for JD into the Tea Party movement due to our coalition efforts in support of the Tea Parties in April and July of 2009, combined with our Tea Parties Against Amnesty arranged by ALIPAC this past Spring and November.

The JD Hayworth campaign had a press conference earlier this week, to announce that 16 Tea Party groups have now officially endorsed his campaign against John McCain. John McCain has no Tea Party group endorsements. In fact, his only Tea Party related endorsement is Sarah Palin's lukewarm endorsement because she owes him for making her his VP candidate. McCain's vote splitter spoiler candidate, Jim Deakin, eagerly posts on Facebook and other forums "I'm the Tea Party candidate" although he has no backing from Tea Party groups. (VIDEO)

Now we need to turn JD's clear advantage in the Tea Party movement into a landslide of national support flowing into his campaign in the form of donations and volunteers just like what happened with Scott Brown's campaign!

If your Tea Party group is not on the list yet, ask your leadership to contact JD Hayworth's campaign to get on board!

The beleaguered, abused, and much maligned Tea Party movement needs a lift right now, and a victory against John McCain would not only provide a morale boost but would also prove that the Tea Party is not just a front group for the GOP DC insiders like Dick Armey of Freedomworks who is a corporate lobbyist who supports the McCain Obama Amnesty plan as well as you can see this Youtube Video that we released.

VIDEO: DICK ARMEY WANTS LIBERTY FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS

Dick Armey has been working very hard behind the scenes to try and stop the Tea Party movement from coalescing around JD Hayworth because that is what his Global corporation paymasters want him to do. We know who Dick Armey really serves and it is time for all Americans to rebuke him and his buddy McCain on August 24, 2010.

Whether you like JD Hayworth like we do or not, we need every Arizona voter to understand that John McCain must be stopped and thrown out of office in the interest of national survival. GOP voters in Arizona will have very little voice or say in matters again, if McCain wins and turns those illegal aliens marching in your streets into citizens and voters who can in turn seek vengeance against all those who stood up to oppose illegal immigration and amnesty.

Arizona voters must make the right decision and I am confident they will, if we can get enough accurate information to them about John McCain before they make a terrible mistake.

Unfortunately, the latest polls show that JD Hayworth is within striking range of defeating John McCain but McCain is still ahead by over 10% points at the time of this article and approximately 47% of Arizona's GOP voters are misinformed enough to tell pollsters they plan to vote for McCain!

ALIPAC is about to launch emergency measures to do all we can to help JD Hayworth win against McCain. We have already sent in large donations and promoted JD online. We have worked hard to accurately inform Americans about John McCain, his support for Amnesty, his previous successful deceptions of primary voters, and what McCain and Obama's plans will do to destroy our borders forever. We have backed McCain's top ally, US Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) back away from the negotiating table with Obama to buy American voters just enough time to get it right at the ballot box.

I hope each of you reading this will understand our heartfelt and rational appeal.

If you are a voter in Arizona, please make the right decision by dropping any support for John McCain or his vote spoiler candidate Jim Deakin.

If you are an American who opposes illegal immigration and Amnesty then sign up for email alerts at www.alipac.us so you can help us do our best to support JD Hayworth and defeat John McCain. You can help from any state in America by donating to JD Hayworth, traveling to Arizona to volunteer for JD Hayworth, contacting people you know in Arizona to make sure they know they must help us all by voting against McCain, or by signing up to help ALIPAC's efforts.

There is a much desired and long overdue political revolution active in America. Tea Party groups, immigration enforcement groups and many others are at the heart of it. Washington DC insiders are scrambling to protect their corrupt assets like John McCain as voters have thrown down incumbent after incumbent across America.

If John McCain wins on August 24, 2010 in Arizona the Revolution will suffer and much of our momentum will be slowed. If JD Hayworth defeats McCain, the Revolution will intensify leading to greater real change in Washington this November.

We must proceed with the faith that our fellow countrymen in Arizona are rational actors and loyal Americans who will make the right decision in this election, if we can afford to get accurate information to them about McCain's betrayal of the nation and his current and previous lies about his support for Amnesty.

Voters in Arizona must understand, if they do not throw John McCain out of office on August 24, that McCain will work to throw those borders down forever and pass Amnesty that will leave Arizonans and all Americans surrounded by an angry mob of millions illegal alien voters who are not going anywhere as the brutal violence in Mexico that is filling their streets with body parts and blood sweeps into every neighborhood in America.

On behalf of the thousands of Americans who are needlessly raped, robbed, and murdered each year due to the open borders betrayal from Washington, we must implore Arizonans to remove those responsible from office and Senator John McCain is one of those most responsible with American blood on his hands.

VIDEO: ALIPAC Tells John McCain campaign there's blood on their hands and Americans will remember!

Take Action Now America

Link to Hayworth campaign: http://www.jdforsenate.com/

Join ALIPAC here by signing up for our email alerts or contributing on our site here at www.ALIPAC.us

William Gheen is the President of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, also known as ALIPAC, which is one of America's largest grass roots organizations fighting against illegal immigration and against Amnesty. He is also the director of Tea Parties Against Amnesty. ALIPAC strives to inform voters of which candidates are properly aligned with the approximately 80% of Americans found in scientific polls to support enforcement of America's existing immigration and border laws as opposed to Amnesty for illegal immigrants.

*

The ALIPAC Teamwww.alipac.us

*March 11, 2010Obama Links Immigration Overhaul in 2010 to G.O.P. BackingBy JULIA PRESTONPresident Obama said Thursday that he would proceed with an overhaul of the immigration system this year if he could attract substantial Republican support. But a leading Republican who supports an overhaul said an immigration bill could not go forward if the president used a legislative shortcut sidestepping Republicans to pass his health care bill. Mr. Obama spent most of the afternoon in meetings on immigration, including one with Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, and Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who have been holding closed-door sessions over the last six months to draw up a bill to revamp the immigration system. The White House called the meetings to show its continued interest in an immigration overhaul, an issue that has languished since last year, in advance of a rally that immigrant groups have called for March 21 in Washington. The groups, who want to see immigration legislation passed this year, have pitched the rally as a maximum show of force with a turnout, they say, of 100,000 people. The two senators said they gave Mr. Obama a three-page outline of the huge bill they are preparing, and they asked for his help to find additional Republican sponsors in the Senate. But Mr. Graham, in a statement, said he had told Mr. Obama “in no uncertain terms” that the immigration debate “could come to a halt for the year” if the president moved to pass health care legislation by a method known as reconciliation, which requires a majority of 51 senators instead of 60 and would in practice require no Republican votes. The White House has been laying the groundwork for a possible reconciliation vote since losing its supermajority in January after the Massachusetts Senate election and finding no Republican support. There was no indication Thursday that Mr. Obama would reconsider that in light of Mr. Graham’s warning. In a separate meeting, the president sat down for more than an hour with immigrant advocates, labor leaders and Roman Catholic and evangelical Christian leaders who support an overhaul that would give legal status to millions of illegal immigrants. At a press conference in Washington on Monday, representatives of some of those groups publicly denounced Mr. Obama’s immigration policies for the first time. Most of the advocates emerged heartened from the meeting with Mr. Obama, if only because he gave them so much time. They said the president offered a sober account of the political difficulties of an immigration bill this year, coming after the protracted battle over health care. Apparently chastened by that fight, he said that an immigration overhaul could not move forward without support from Republican lawmakers lined up ahead of time, participants said. Mr. Obama pledged to begin rallying support from Republicans, but he also called on Mr. Graham and the immigrant advocacy and business groups to focus their efforts on building bipartisan support. Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said of the president after the meeting: “He remains fully committed to pass immigration reform. We had a very frank discussion about the difficulties.” In addition to opening a path to legal status for an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants, the bill Mr. Schumer and Mr. Graham are shaping would tighten enforcement against hiring illegal immigrant workers by creating a national biometric identification card for all workers, including American citizens and legal immigrants. The bill would also further strengthen border enforcement and create a new temporary-worker program to allow immigrants to come to work in the United States in the future. How to manage future immigration has been one of the most contentious issues for the senators, and they asked Mr. Obama for his help in breaking the logjam. The labor movement has remained united behind a proposal for an autonomous commission to monitor the labor markets and determine how many visas for foreign workers would be needed in a given year. Unions oppose any expanded program to allow in temporary immigrant guest workers, arguing that those programs leave immigrants vulnerable to abuse and undercut American workers. Business groups oppose labor’s proposal, favoring an approach that would allow the markets, rather than a government agency, to determine labor demand. They also want a greatly expanded program for temporary guest workers. While top leaders from the Service Employees International Union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, and the Unite Here unions were in the meeting with Mr. Obama, officials from the A.F.L.-C.I.O. said they were surprised and disappointed that they had not been invited. In advance of the March 21 rally, young immigrants in several cities have been holding “coming out parties” where they disclose publicly that they do not have legal immigration status. In downtown Chicago on Wednesday, eight immigrants made such declarations. Among them was Tania Unzeuta, a 26-year-old student from Mexico, who stood by a sign that read “Undocumented and Unafraid.” *GET ON FAIRUS.org EMAIL LIST – EVERY DAY THE MEXICAN OCCUPATION, WELFARE STATE AND PRISON SYSTEM EXPANDS!

U.S. may sue Arizona's Sheriff Arpaio for not cooperating in investigation

By Jerry Markon and Stephanie McCrummenWednesday, August 18, 2010; A01

A federal investigation of a controversial Arizona sheriff known for tough immigration enforcement has intensified in recent days, escalating the conflict between the Obama administration and officials in the border state.

Justice Department officials in Washington have issued a rare threat to sue Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio if he does not cooperate with their investigation of whether he discriminates against Hispanics. The civil rights inquiry is one of two that target the man who calls himself "America's toughest sheriff." A federal grand jury in Phoenix is examining whether Arpaio has used his power to investigate and intimidate political opponents and whether his office misappropriated government money, sources said.

The standoff comes just weeks after the Justice Department sued Arizona and Gov. Jan Brewer (R) because of the state's new immigration law, heightening tensions over the issue ahead of November's midterm elections. The renewed debate has focused attention on Arpaio, a former D.C. police officer who runs a 3,800-employee department, and a state at the epicenter of the controversy over the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.

(Photos: How the immigration law is being enforced in Benson, Arizona)

Once seen as a quirky figure who has inmates dress in pink underwear and forces them to work on chain gangs, Arpaio has in recent years become a kind of folk hero to those who favor his heavily publicized "crime sweeps," conducted mostly in Hispanic neighborhoods. But civil rights groups accuse the 78-year-old lawman of racial profiling. And some Maricopa County officials say Arpaio has begun meritless corruption investigations of officials who have criticized his policies or opposed his requests.

Those allegations are at the core of the Justice Department investigations, according to documents, lawyers familiar with the inquiries, and people who have been questioned by FBI agents and the grand jury.

The investigations reflect the tangled politics surrounding the immigration debate. The criminal probe is led by Dennis K. Burke, the U.S. attorney in Phoenix who was a top aide to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

Two of Arpaio's attorneys, Robert N. Driscoll and Asheesh Agarwal, were officials in the Justice Department's civil rights division in the George W. Bush administration. They denied that the sheriff, a Republican who has been reelected four times since 1992, has been uncooperative or has engaged in racial profiling, misusing money or targeting political enemies.

"The sheriff's office is cooperating fully with the grand jury investigation and has complete confidence that the inquiry will clear it of any wrongdoing," Agarwal said. "The office has always fulfilled its responsibilities truthfully, honorably, and in full compliance with state and federal law."

Arpaio's attorneys contend that the investigations are politically motivated, citing a news conference in March at which Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. was quoted as saying he expects the inquiries to "produce results."

"While we have no quarrel with the assistant U.S. attorneys handling the investigation, the attorney general's comments appear to violate federal regulations, departmental policy and state ethical rules designed to ensure the fairness of criminal investigations," Agarwal said.

(More: Chat with Sheriff Joe Arpaio)

Brewer and her supporters have also asserted that the Justice Department was politically motivated in its lawsuit over the state law, which authorizes, among other things, police officers to ask about the status of people suspected of being in the country illegally. A federal judge last month stopped the most controversial sections of the legislation from taking effect.

Justice Department officials denied any political considerations, saying the investigations and the lawsuit are based on the facts and the law. They declined to comment on details of the Arpaio inquiries.

The civil rights division's investigation began in March 2009 and focuses on whether Arpaio's department engaged in "discriminatory police practices and unconstitutional searches and seizures," along with allegations that his jail discriminated against Hispanic inmates, according to letters the division sent to Arpaio. A complaint to the Justice Department said that even bilingual jail guards are required to speak to inmates only in English and that the rule could endanger prisoners' medical care. The jail was also accused of forcing Hispanic visitors to fill out a "citizenship check" form, the letters said.

Lawyers in the division have repeatedly interviewed Phoenix area human rights leaders about Arpaio's immigration sweeps, and local "cop watch" groups have turned over hours of video footage of the sweeps to investigators.

"Their questions are in regards to racial profiling, questions about what are the practices when people get stopped," said Salvador Reza, an organizer with the Puente human rights movement who has met with Justice Department lawyers. He said the lawyers have asked about the treatment of inmates in Arpaio's jail.

In an Aug. 3 letter to Arpaio's attorneys, Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the civil rights division, said the sheriff's office had declined repeated requests to turn over documents and meet with investigators. Without cooperation by Tuesday, the letter said, the government would file suit "to compel access to the requested documents, facilities and personnel."

In his Aug. 5 reply, Driscoll accused the Justice Department of "a desperate attempt" to compel cooperation and of "a public relations campaign against Sheriff Arpaio." He added: "DOJ cannot require the reproduction of millions of pages of documents so DOJ can 'see what it can find.' "

Arpaio's resistance is highly unusual: Justice Department officials said the threat of such a lawsuit is rare. They added that they plan to meet with the sheriff's attorneys next week in a last-ditch effort to forestall litigation. If the department files a broader civil lawsuit, it could result in the department terminating the several million dollars in grants to Arpaio's office each year or in a judge's order forcing him to change his policies.

On a separate track, the grand jury investigation has been underway since at least January. Lawyers familiar with the inquiry and witnesses said it is focused on allegations that as Arpaio has fought with the county board over his budget and other issues, he and his deputies have retaliated by carrying out at least seven criminal investigations of county officials alleging corruption, fraud and other crimes.

Some legal experts say it could be difficult for such allegations to result in criminal charges. "I don't know what a charge would be," said Peter Zeidenberg, a former Justice Department public corruption prosecutor. "We all would agree that being abusive is wrong, but I'm not aware of any federal statute that would fit."

In one case, Arpaio leveled 40 corruption-related charges against a county supervisor who had spoken out against his policies, all of which a judge dismissed. In another, the sheriff's allies in the county attorney's office filed more than 100 criminal counts against another supervisor for improperly filling out required financial disclosure forms. Several days after a judge dismissed most of those, Arpaio's deputies arrested the supervisor in a parking garage and walked him before TV cameras to jail, announcing more than 100 new charges, which a judge dismissed. (Some of the original charges remain on appeal.)

"They'll never stop," said Deputy County Manager Sandi Wilson, who was named in one of Arpaio's investigations. Wilson testified before the grand jury and has spoken to FBI investigators more than a dozen times, as recently as last week. "They don't care who tells them to stop."

County Manager David Smith said grand jurors also questioned him about deputies' trips to conferences and training missions in Las Vegas, Honduras and other destinations, where he said they often stayed at "boutique" hotels. He said prosecutors were focusing on "issues that might involve the crime of extortion over the county budget, misappropriation of funds and abuse of police power."

McCrummen reported from Phoenix.

More from PostPolitics:

Arizona legislators have shelved a proposal to change the immigration law.